please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison down?

2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump killer,
is it any good?

3. All the lawn is very hilly and patchy, how is the best way of levelling
it, someone told me to put top soil down, another dig it all up and seed it,
I don't have much spare money, the lawn is 42 ft x 120 ft

any help will be very appreciated.

"Keith Hampson" wrote in message
...
please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison down?


It is unlikely that you will ever eliminate all the ants. If you have a plague
of them, and if you can locate their nest, then you can use an ant poison (buy
from garden centres, etc.), or pour boiling water over the nest (careful - do
not pour any on yourself). This will reduce the number of ants, but you will
have to learn to accept that your garden will always contain some ants.

Bevan

"Keith Hampson" wrote in message
...
please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when
we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison
down?


Keep it wet.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

On Mon, 24 Jan 2005 18:16:09 -0000, "Keith Hampson"
wrote:

please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison down?

Learn to ignore them, they are doing no harm (more likely to be
beneficial) and there's no way you're going to get rid of them.

2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump killer,
is it any good?

It kills 'em but it doesn't dig 'em up, you'll have to to that now or
in a few years when they've rotted. Or camouflage them by some well
designed planting.

3. All the lawn is very hilly and patchy, how is the best way of levelling
it, someone told me to put top soil down, another dig it all up and seed it,
I don't have much spare money, the lawn is 42 ft x 120 ft

Depends how bad it is, how picky you are and how much work/money you
want to expend. Small hollows can be filled with sharp sand or a
gritty compost mix in the growing season, add a bit of seed if needed.
Big humps and hollows can be dealt with by lifting the turf and
adding/removing soil, then relieving any compaction and re-laying the
turf. If it's *really* bad - like the builders specification
'Landscaped garden to rear of property' and you're a perfectionist,
then it's time to start from scratch.

=================================================

Rod

Weed my email address to reply.
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

--

email happy at dryad dot org
"Keith Hampson" wrote in message
...
please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when
we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison
down?


I found that when I had loads of red ants those ant poisions that goes to
the nest works well. You do it for a few weeks and then it dumbs down the
numbers enough to be able to leave it for a bit and then start again when
there is a problem. That way its less putting things down all the time.

But really unless its red ants I personally won't put chemicals down. There
is also a powder and spray (based on soap I think) thats organic. Most of
these should be in shops but if not
http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/index.php has them.


2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump
killer,
is it any good?


I read you can buy mushroom plugs and grow mushrooms (to eat) and it slowly
gets rid of the stump. I am not sure stump killers actually rot it away and
its basty stuff (you have to bag it up to stop it running away) Some tree
companies do stump grinding. (I left mine for the beetles to live in)

"Keith Hampson" wrote in message
...

Welcome Keith!

please excuse me but I am totally new to gardening, I have just bought a
house so starting fro scratch, but would like to help I can get.

the problems I have with the garden are as follows:

1. the lawn last summer was covered in ants, making it very annoying when
we
sat in our garden, how can I stop the ants this year? maybe put poison
down?

Where I live the ants seem to occupy sandy areas, maybe your soil is sandy?


2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump
killer,
is it any good?

Sorry I don't know enough about stumps, not got any in my garden,
but if the stump killer liquid/powder? is not too expensive, then its worth
ago.

3. All the lawn is very hilly and patchy, how is the best way of levelling
it, someone told me to put top soil down, another dig it all up and seed
it,
I don't have much spare money, the lawn is 42 ft x 120 ft

Thats quite a fair size lawn! I Just priced some seed on the net and to
re-grow a new lawn from seed for your lawn dimensions (469 m2) sorry about
the metric! but this is how its sold nowadays! Would be between £78 - £102
(for 15 Kg) enough for your lawn size.

To re-turf would cost £613 - £1186 for the turf alone!

You could level any lumps in the lawn as a previous poster suggested.

As I mentioned before, I get the feeling the soil beneath your lawn is of a
sandy nature, and will encourage the ants, and I know this is going to be
hard work on a lawn this size but you need to buy/borrow a lawn aeriator,
the kind that removes small plugs of soil. I would do it in sections then I
would rake in well a mixture of topsoil and compost, this would hopefully
retain moisture for longer and may discourage the ants.

I would avoid using a weed and feed mixture as this would prevent you from
sowing grass seed in the near future.

If you have got children or pets I would leave seed sowning until Sept/Oct
when they would be less likely to want to run about on it.

One other thing, established lawns love being cut, it promotes root growth,
so in the height of the summer season you need to be cutting your lawn twice
a week!

Welcome to gardening! ( mind you with a lawn your size it could be more like
farming! ).


astrecks(at)yahooyourbrain(dot)com (remove your brain to reply)

http://www.astrecks.co.uk
Always look on the bright side of life (De do, de do, de doody doody do)

"Amber Ormerod" wrote in
:

I read you can buy mushroom plugs and grow mushrooms (to eat) and it
slowly gets rid of the stump. I am not sure stump killers actually rot
it away and its basty stuff (you have to bag it up to stop it running
away) Some tree companies do stump grinding. (I left mine for the
beetles to live in)


I bought some mushroom plugs for one of my stumps - they come with strict
instructions that they must be used on freshly cut wood - you can't just
bung them on any old stump.

Mine were special ones for conifers, as I had a leylandii stump to deal
with. No sign of any mushrooms yet - I think it's about a year now since I
added the spores, and I really did follow the instructions to the letter
:-(

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

In article . 24,
Victoria Clare writes
"Amber Ormerod" wrote in
:

I read you can buy mushroom plugs and grow mushrooms (to eat) and it
slowly gets rid of the stump. I am not sure stump killers actually rot
it away and its basty stuff (you have to bag it up to stop it running
away) Some tree companies do stump grinding. (I left mine for the
beetles to live in)


I bought some mushroom plugs for one of my stumps - they come with strict
instructions that they must be used on freshly cut wood - you can't just
bung them on any old stump.

I don't see the necessity for 'cut'. These are wild fungi we're talking
about! But it may be that they need newly-dead wood. Or not quite dead
wood.

Mine were special ones for conifers, as I had a leylandii stump to deal
with. No sign of any mushrooms yet - I think it's about a year now since I
added the spores, and I really did follow the instructions to the letter
:-(

I have a cherry stump covered with polypore. It's looking really
attractive :-)
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

The stump which is a horse chestnut was chopped down about 2 month ago, it
is about 15 inch in diameter, if I dog round it hoe deep will I heed to go
before I reached the roots, and would I need a chainsaw, and could I lift
it?


"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "JeffC" contains these words:

Keith said

2. I have some 4 old tree stumps in the garden which have been cut
about 5
inch tall, how can I get shut of them, I know you can buy tree stump
killer,
is it any good?

Sorry I don't know enough about stumps, not got any in my garden,
but if the stump killer liquid/powder? is not too expensive, then its
worth
ago.

It would be a total waste of time and money. Stump killer is for
killing fresh live stumps and preventing certain trees from resprouting;
it won't remove existing old stumps, which is what he wants to do.

How big are the stumps? Anything up to a foot across is most easily
dealt with by excavating a fairly small shallow hole around the trunk,
just enough space to expose the roots where they join it, and cutting
off the roots that are holding it in the ground...this is a much easier
, quicker, job than it sounds. I've often done it myself.

Janet

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:45:56 -0000, "Keith Hampson"
wrote:

The stump which is a horse chestnut was chopped down about 2 month ago, it
is about 15 inch in diameter, if I dog round it hoe deep will I heed to go
before I reached the roots, and would I need a chainsaw, and could I lift
it?
I wouldn't bother trying to dig out a Horse Chestnut that size without
some mechanical help. If you really must get it out now then I'd
suggest getting a tree surgeon to grind it out or hire a stump grinder
yourself.
Horse Chestnut will very probably try to re-grow so you could use
Ammonium Sulphamate (Root-Out, and one or two other trade names) to
kill it. Then as I suggested before camouflage it with suitable
planting and leave it to rot.

=================================================

Rod

Weed my email address to reply.
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article . 24,
Victoria Clare writes
"Amber Ormerod" wrote in
:

I read you can buy mushroom plugs and grow mushrooms (to eat) and it
slowly gets rid of the stump. I am not sure stump killers actually rot
it away and its basty stuff (you have to bag it up to stop it running
away) Some tree companies do stump grinding. (I left mine for the
beetles to live in)


I bought some mushroom plugs for one of my stumps - they come with strict
instructions that they must be used on freshly cut wood - you can't just
bung them on any old stump.

I don't see the necessity for 'cut'. These are wild fungi we're talking
about! But it may be that they need newly-dead wood. Or not quite dead
wood.

Mine were special ones for conifers, as I had a leylandii stump to deal
with. No sign of any mushrooms yet - I think it's about a year now since
I
added the spores, and I really did follow the instructions to the letter
:-(

I have a cherry stump covered with polypore. It's looking really
attractive :-)


Maybe they need to have a fresh cut to be able to have the safe to eat?
Fungi cross infect very easily.

Shame it seemed like a nice idea when I read it. Bummer ;-((

In article , Amber Ormerod
writes

Maybe they need to have a fresh cut to be able to have the safe to eat?
Fungi cross infect very easily.

That seems very possible. Fresh cut, hopefully free of other fungi.
It may be that an already resident fungus would mean your new fungus
wouldn't establish, or it may simply be the practicality that your
average kit buyer might not be guaranteed to know the difference
between, say, oyster mushroom and polypore.
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Kay wrote in
:

In article . 24,
Victoria Clare writes
"Amber Ormerod" wrote in
:

I read you can buy mushroom plugs and grow mushrooms (to eat) and it
slowly gets rid of the stump. I am not sure stump killers actually
rot it away and its basty stuff (you have to bag it up to stop it
running away) Some tree companies do stump grinding. (I left mine
for the beetles to live in)


I bought some mushroom plugs for one of my stumps - they come with
strict instructions that they must be used on freshly cut wood - you
can't just bung them on any old stump.

I don't see the necessity for 'cut'. These are wild fungi we're
talking about! But it may be that they need newly-dead wood. Or not
quite dead wood.

Well that was my theory. The instructions asked for a pile of new-cut,
healthy logs that were cut not more than 6 weeks: I didn't have that but I
did have a stump only 3 weeks past chopping down instead.

I suppose it is possible that my innoculation failed because the tree was
still on its roots - it may not have known it was dead yet.

I do have a suspicion though that the spores you buy may just not be fresh
enough. Mine were from a specialist supplier, but I guess they can't
really control what happens to them in the post: maybe they got stuck next
to a heater or something.


Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 201.150...
I suppose it is possible that my innoculation failed because the tree was
still on its roots - it may not have known it was dead yet.


You could have played one of those tapes thats suposed to tell you things in
your sleep so it goes into the subconcious. Or sent it a 'sorry your dead'
card.

I do have a suspicion though that the spores you buy may just not be fresh
enough. Mine were from a specialist supplier, but I guess they can't
really control what happens to them in the post: maybe they got stuck next
to a heater or something.



Of course I cannot remember where I saw them, so no way to confirming what I
remember about it saying use on stumps.